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UN Secretary General to Uzbekistan: stop forced child labor
Reuters and the New York Times are both reporting that the UN SG made a big push on human rights on his regional trip, with special emphasis on the issue in Uzbekistan. The Secretary General was also reportedly very moved by his flight over the Aral Sea, an ecological disaster directly traceable to the cotton monoculture that persists in Uzbekistan to this day. Tension between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan over the planned Rogun hydroelectric dam, which Uzbekistan fears would limit water to irrigate its fields in summer, took up some of the SG’s attention.
Though we focus on the moral horror of children exploited by their own government, Ban Ki Moon’s visit to the region points to other troubling issues exacerbated by cotton, a system perpetuated by the cost savings created by children’s toil.
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REPORTS
Download 2010 SOAS Report What Has Changed
The production and export of cotton continues to be a major feature of the economy, politics and everyday lives of the people of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. This report analyses the nature and causes of their use of child labour in the cotton sector.